I am not talking about fish like Native S.H., which we should all let go, I am talking about mainly Salmon that you caught and had to let go because of state regulations. This comes to mind because I just developed some film from my trip to Seiku this past September and it has a picture of the 25lb King I caught and let go in front of the Caves. Before I let that beauty go I would of sworn that it would have killed me to do so. But after a nice long battle, on Silver gear, and reviving her for 3 or 4 minutes, that fish and I came to an understanding. I felt really good about releasing it. So what is the biggest fish you released........Because you HAD TO.....

DITTO labor day weekend fishing the tide rip in front of slip point let one go in the 20's. was totally jazzed, motor mooching a herring. Ben

30lb king
tyler

Me personally, a king of about 25 lbs. at Pt. Defiance.
While guiding in Ak. where the king limit is 1 per day for non-res. I had 4 guests on board, 3 kings (biggest being 32lbs.) in the box and we tripled up, 1 came unpinned but we got the other 2 to the boat, they were twins in the mid 40's, we chose the one that looked the biggest and unhooked the other the one we kept was 46 lbs.
I've also released a bunch of big halibut, voluntarily.

I let a king that was 51 inches long go, in Tillamook bay some years back, because I already had about a 40lb hen and that was enough. Does that count?

30#+ king on a fly rod.

out on some river in AK that shall remain nameless.. three of us released probibly 20 kings between 35 and 50 lbs in one day. Personally I got one 30+ lbs on an 8wt fly rod... it was fun for about the first half hour...
and that was just the big fish.. It was a great feeling to let all those fish go!!

[ 01-09-2002: Message edited by: Sniggler ]

Cape Beale off Vancouver Island! Kings from 25 to 35 in Late Augest. The Last year we were there and it was open we could limit so fast that we had to C & R just to make it worth the 5 mile run! You could let 5 to 12 fish go in a 5 hour stretch.

Also 1997 early Augest at Rivers Inlet. We were in private boats and the weather and fishing were the best Ive ever encountered! The rule was let it go if its under 30 because the 40's and 50's were EVERYWERE! Seriously the best fishing ever!

Bob D

I have hooked and landed a 77 lb king before. One year on the Kenai fishing silvers we hooked the mother of all kings. after 1 1/2 hours we released what we thought would go at least 80 lbs.

REMEMBER IF THE FREEZER IS FULL LET 'UM GO!

40lb+ Chinook off Waadah Island while jigging for bottomfish with a 6-oz Krippled Herring. Was reeling up to make another pass and the line just went slack. Was a very interesting fight on my 6-ft fiberglass jigstick and low-gear Penn reel. I thought I lost the big buck a couple of times because I couldn't pick up line fast enough when it charged the boat. Gotta love them barbed hooks.

While fishing for summer-run steelhead I caught a 25lb king that I had to let go. It was quite a fight on my 1082 GL2. Whenever I have to release a fish I always think, "Well I didn't want to have to clean it anyways."

~ Dr Pepper

I'd say the biggest animal caught on my line that I let go was an alligator (not sturgeon) that was about 250 pounds.

This year would be: 44 pound king, 42 pound king, 40.5 king, a buttload of chummies in the high teens low 20's (they seemed smaller this year ), but the one I wish I didn't let go was a 32 pound bright ass hen that I had caught immediately after catching and punching my card on a 35 pound buck.

It doesn't bother me to let any fish go. It only bothers me if the fish lets go before I get to let it go...lol

I think it was in 1995,I was fishin on a westport charter.That year was fin clipped coho only retention.I hooked and landed a king between 40 & 42 pounds that had to be released.Needless to say I was cryin like a little beeeyocht,but have been blessed by the fish god's every year since then.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

If you've fished the lewis in the fall over the last 5 years you'd have had to let go plenty of nice pig chrome fall fish and personally have let go several in the mid to upper 40's. But last year was the first year we've been able to retain them in the lewis, hopefully it stays the same in the future.
Keith

I've let go 9 and 10 foot sturgeon I've caught.

An approx. 4 or 5 hundred pound ocean sunfish (one of the most bizzare looking fish you'll ever see!) off of the Coronado islands, Baja Mexico, summer of '95.

p.s. I like to eat fish as much as the next guy, but I'm not sure how many 40+ chrome pig kings I could eat in a year?

[ 01-10-2002: Message edited by: 4Salt ]

In 1996 I landed and released a 50+slab on the HOH
that we got right in front of Jimmy you should have seen the look on his face when we let him swim free to do his thing.

4 salt
whad you catch it on?
tyler
P.S. Oh yea the coronados RULE!

I've released at least 2 Kings in the 35 pound
plus class. It was one of those hot days last
summer in a zipper hole on the south sound. Most
Kings I ever caught was last year.

I don't eat fish, unless it smells like tuna :p

However, deep-fried cod, sturgeon, halibut, mahi mahi, and red snapper aren't too bad. Gotta watch out for those vicious snappers.

If the padre doesn't give me a request for a fish, then I release them all, or give some fish to a co-worker who has 5 kids. I guess he's starting his on basketball team.

Tyler,

We were fishing the kelp rafts in open water for yellowtail using live sardines with no weight. I spooled out a lot of line and it tightened up hard. I set the hook thinking it was a yellowtail, but it was just dead weight. Turns out the sardine must have swam right next to the thing and got loose, and I ended up hooking the sunfish right below the jaw. It fought like a bag of cement, and we motored right up to it on the surface and cut the leader.

I released 3 tule's in the 30-35 pound range this year at B10. Tules aren't worth eating.

After they closed the chinook season, we were releasing 2-4 nice URB's a day, despite the fact we weren't targeting them. Its okay though because they could swim upstream into commercial and tribal nets. That was fun(not). My largest URB was about 25#'s.

In August I caught a 19lb. buck silver 10 miles off Westport. Had to release it because it was a nat. I didn't mind to much cause it was an ugly hook nose w/ lots of color. Didn't know salmon could change before entering the river.

The one that hurt hit me last week. In November I caught a chrome bright hen King on the Hump where you can't retain Kings. She didn't have a hooked nose at all, a perfect beak. The guy fishing next to me said it weighed 40+ lbs. I think it was at least 35lbs. This guy hadn't taken home a fish yet and I could see the tears welling up in his eyes when he slipped it back in the river for me. What makes it hurt is last week I was talking to a friend who belongs to a local fishing club told me that a kid that I know, but wouldn't disclose his name, was hired by the hatchery to club all the Kings in Stevens Creek because there was to many. The only thing that eases the pain of that info is hopefully it went past Stevens Creek and on up the river.

I let a 45# Springer go this year (White Spring)...the guys beside me were in shock. I still have no idea what I would have done with 45#'s a white Spring meat.

4Salt,

If your heading up this way this year to fish Winters Steelies rip me an email.

Will do Matt.

Yeah, I got that same look too a couple of times.

BH (before Herschel) we fished the Sammamish alot. We had gotten blown off the Sky and stopped in at 80 acres. My fishing buddy sneeks up and looks and sees one surface right in front of us. I had a brand new Leo's jig and chuck it in the slough and said "where wuzzee?" "right SLAM there". There is a bike/jogging path and the bridge right where we were. By the time we got the fish to the bank both sides of the river and the bridge were full of gawkers. As it was closed for native fish we unhooked him, kissed him on the head and let him go. I wish I had at least known to measure the fish and no camera either.

750 lb. (est.) Manta-Ray, hooked or foul hooked him in the mouth while pitching live bait to a couple of striped marlin out of cobo in Dec. If you think halibut can pull hard, think again!!

[ 01-11-2002: Message edited by: chrome/22 ]

Do unintentional releases count?

we were trolling for silvers in seiku in the early 90's when kings were keepers, I hooked a king first thing in the a.m. fought it for 25 minutes, as we went to net it right at the boat the hooks popped out, it was 40lbs plus, the worst part about it was my friend stood and watched as it lay on the surface for 4-5 seconds not knowing it was free, the net was still in his hands!